Monday, 17 December 2012

V-Roehr 1130/1250 - The Other, Other American V-Twin Motorcycle

It has an American-made V-Twin (an
honest-to-god Harley motor, no less), an advanced chassis, top shelf
components, and a distinctly sporty bent, with stunning performance that is far
greater than the sum of its parts. It’s built by a clever American engineer
working independently to apply his own ideas towards building the ultimate
American made sport bike, powered by an apple-pie and Budweiser fuelled motor.

And it isn’t a Buell.

It’s the Roehr 1130/1250SC, a star-spangled
piece of exotica developed by an Illinois engineer by the name of Walter
Roehrich. Built around a Harley-Davidson powerplant and offering top shelf
components and hand built exclusivity (with a price to match), the Roehr
superbike was set to be a promising US entry into the rarefied territory of
exotic sport bike manufacture usually reserved for European builders.

Walter Roehrich is a Gurney, Illinois based
engineer and VW-group master technician who has been tinkering with motorcycle
design since the 1990s, when he launched his namesake Roehr (“roar”- geddit?)
motorcycle company. His initial brief was to produce a 500cc, two-stroke,
V-twin sportbike that would introduce a revolutionary direct-injection system
(sound familiar?) to modernize the two-stroke concept for the ‘90s. At the
opposite end of the spectrum his swansong project would be a
high-powered electric sportbike. In between he produced a V-Rod powered
superbike that would introduce his genius to a generation of sportbike nuts who
were following the burgeoning exotic bike market in the late ‘90s and early
‘oughts.

Roehrich first made a name on the
motorcycle scene when he mated two YZ250 cylinders to a common crankcase and
stuffed the resulting 115hp, 500cc two-stroke motor into a 300-odd pound
roadster. The Rv500 was introduced in the mid 90s to quite a bit of acclaim,
but never reached full production as emissions standards got tougher and the
company encountered difficulties with their proposed direct injection system.

The next project, which broke cover around
2004, was a four-stroke successor to the 500. The Rv1000 had a liquid cooled,
quad-cam, 8 valve 936cc V-twin provided by Swedish manufacturer Highland. Light
weight was the aim, and the main reason for selecting the Highland unit (which
looked more like a pair of dirtbike singles mated together than a “traditional”
twin cylinder motor). Dry weight was supposed to be around 330 lbs, with 120hp
to motivate it. Not bad, but not enough to light a fire under investor’s butts.

Then in 2007 Roehrich announced he’d be
building a limited production superbike around a liquid-cooled Harley-Davidson
V-Rod engine. Despite weighing considerably more than the Rv1000 prototype, and
having about the same horsepower, this idea sparked some interest in the
motorcycle media. The V-Roehr 1130 was greeted with enthusiasm, but events in
2008 would conspire against the fledgling project.

I recall reading a moto rag in the 2007 and
coming across a breathless preview of this new American superbike that was set
to steal the crown away from Buell for Harley-powered sport bikes. It looked
like a pastiche of exotic styling elements; some Ducati and MV Agusta elements
in the bodywork, stacked projector beam lights like a Duc 999, bonded beam
frame that looked a lot like an 1990s Bimota YB item, and side mount radiators
straight off a Honda RC51. The end result was strongly reminiscent of the
Mondial Piega. It looked like it was pieced together from a parts bin of
international exotica.

And it looked GOOD.

Not only that, it was going to house a
thumping and relatively modern Harley V-Rod motor. That alone gave Roehrich
some extra street cred, as Erik Buell was still using the antiquated
air-cooled, pushrod OHV Sportster mills in his XB lineup (Buell would silence
all of us armchair engineers by introducing the much more modern Rotax-powered
1125R, before falling victim to the recession and shuttering in 2009). The
Roehr 1130 looked like a winner – American guts, Italian-esque style, and most
importantly an element of desirability among the public. The lone underdog
built-in-a-shed mythos helped push the Roehr to the fore of the motorcycle
media where the project received a disproportionate amount of good press
considering how small the operation was.

The donor motor was the tried and true, but
under-appreciated, Harley-Davidson Revolution V-twin. The Revolution was an
1130 (later 1250) cc V-twin with a 60-degree vee. Much unlike traditional
Milwaukee iron, it features liquid cooling, double overhead cams, four valve
per cylinder, and a modern fuel injection system. It was developed in
partnership with Porsche and was loosely based on the VR1000 engine design,
with an oversquare 100x72mm bore/stroke. Rumour had it that the engine was
seriously overbuilt to ensure longevity and reliability(a high maintenance, fragile Harley
would not survive long in today’s market), and so far that has been the case.
Introduced in 2001 in the VRSCA “V-Rod”, the Revolution received a lukewarm
reception from the notoriously traditional Harley faithful (many of whom were
terrified at the prospect of losing the traditional air-cooled 45 degree twin
in favour of a high-revving DOHC twin), but it showed a step towards modernity.
Initial versions punched out 115hp (claimed, at the crank). So far it has only
been offered in the V-Rod, with no plans of migrating into other models,
despite the fears and rumours thrown around by HOG purists.

Roehrich planned to build 50 1130s in 2008,
at an eye-watering 39,995$ price tag. Acceptable considering the high component
quality and hand-built nature of the beast, but hardly a bargain. For that
price in 2008 you could buy the thundering Ducati 1098R homologation special,
or the knee-weakening Bimota DB7 - stiff competition for a bike that was
powered by what was effectively a cruiser mill.

The motor would be held in a twin-spar
steel frame bonded to billet aluminum sideplates. The rear subframe mounts were
carbon fibre, as was the bodywork. The fuel tank was placed under the seat,
with a filler cap where the passenger seat might have been- the “tank” was a dummy unit covering
the airbox and intake of the rather tall V-Rod engine. The motor and engine
management was stock Harley, aside from a chain final drive (instead of the
belt drive found on a V-Rod). Honda side-mount radiators were used to maintain
a slim frontal profile. An Ohlins rear shock and forks, and Marchesini wheels, suspended the whole
shebang while Brembo goldline axial calipers stopped it. The parts-bin
appearance was not by accident – the exhausts were from a Yamaha R1, the headlights
were from a Buell Firebolt, the front suspension and triples were from a Ducati superbike, and the
instrument cluster was straight off the V-Rod.

The project had its detractors. The
Revolution motor was heavy and underpowered for a sportbike, especially when
you compared it to the then-king-of-the-hill Ducati 1098 which was pumping out
north of 140 hp at the wheel. Weight and lack of power were the exact reasons
Erik Buell had decided against using the Revolution in his lineup. The
piecemeal nature of the project made the bike look like a mongrel made of
various bits cobbled together; fine for a homebrew one-off, but not appealing
in a $40000 hand built special. Online forums and comment threads were rife
with armchair criticism and pessimism towards the whole endeavour.

Initial reviews were favourable. The
resulting bike was admirably light considering the donor motor was around 200
lbs but still a bit heavier than the competition. Handling was good, with a
well-designed chassis that aped the Ducati stable-with-good-feedback formula.
Some details needed sorting out, but considering the test machine was little
more than a prototype built in Roehrich’s spare time the results were
impressive.

That was the key. This was a labour of love
for Roehrich. It wasn’t a get rich quick scheme, or a borderline fraud like
some other upstart “exotic” companies that sought to charge big bucks for
vapourware products. Walter built the V-Roehr in his spare time, with his own
money, and he designed the damn thing himself – even the stunning bodywork was
penned in part by Roehrich. The red-and-white 1130 prototype he passed around
to reviewers wasn’t really a pre-production model, it was a one-off
demonstrator he had built himself. He was campaigning for investors and help as
much as for potential customers.

The opinion was that the 1130 made a better
street-oriented sport bike than a trackday dominator, particularly with the
standard V-Rod 5-speed transmission that retained cruiser gearing and a too-low
first gear. Power was lacking compared to the competition. 120hp would have
been competitive in the late 90s, but by 2007-2008 things were a lot more
heated in the sport twin category. The 1130 retained the useable, torque-rich
nature of the V-Rod but never had enough power to inspire awe.

In late 2008 an updated V-Roehr was
unveiled and a new prototype was offered up for review. Clad in the same
stunning bodywork, but with a new blue and silver paint job and an in-house single-sided
swingarm design, the 1250SC used the updated 1250cc Revolution motor that had been
introduced in the 2008 V-Rod. Otherwise it was more or less the same machine,
now with a proposed price tag of $49,999.

Oh, it also made 169hp and 100lb/ft at the
wheel, thanks to a clever supercharger setup developed by Roehrich (hence
“SC”). That addressed the power deficit complaints levelled at the 1130.

The supercharger was a belt-driven,
extremely compact Rotrex centrifugal unit that was small enough to fit under
the dummy tank, with just a slight widening of the frame needed to clear the
width of the drive belt. Unlike traditional superchargers, the setup on the
1250 uses a small blower with a high ratio mated to a bypass system that
effectively removes the boost at steady throttle, idle, and overrun while
re-circulating the pressurized air back into the compressor to ensure instant
response when needed. The supercharger was setup to deliver boost proportionate
to the engine speed, which gave the 1250 remarkably linear power delivery
without any lag. Peak boost was 8 psi.

Because the Revolution engine was overbuilt
and understressed, it was well suited to forced induction with minimal
modifications. The SC retained the stock pistons and compression ratio. No
intercooler was needed.No
reinforcements were needed to cope with the extra boost. Here the choice of the
Revolution motor made sense. Reviewers praised the smooth, broad powerband and
well-tuned power delivery that did not feel like any other forced induction
motor – it was lag-free and nearly flawless, impressive stuff for an upstart
company when many large manufacturers struggle with fuelling and throttle
response.

Aside from the extra power the 1250SC was
much like the 1130. The bike was quite heavy (reviews estimated around 500 lbs
wet), handling was good but not perfect, and the V-Rod gearing was not suited
for a sport bike. The fuel tank was limited to 12 litres due to the underseat
arrangement, which made for a very short range. Once again, reviews noted it
was better as a street sport bike than a track tool, short range excepted.

All was not well, however. Despite having a
polished product that exceeded expectations, the V-Roehr was introduced at the
wrong time. Up until 2008 the market for expensive and exotic vehicles was
booming, along with many other luxury products (my day job is working in the
luxury watch industry and we saw a huge shift in taste and demand after 2008).
Once the world economy started to falter, demand for expensive, hand built
playthings dwindled to nothing overnight – particularly in the US where the
economy tanked in spectacular fashion. Roehrich himself admitted to financial trouble
and a lack of orders, as well as a lot of cancelled deposits – he lost 11 of
his 12 orders for 2008. Ominous signs were noted when Roehrich sold his
prototype 1250SC on ebay in 2009 without warranty support.

In 2010 Roehrich made an attempt to revitalise
his brand by introducing a pair of electric sport bikes, capitalizing on the
green fad sweeping through the motorcycle industry at the time. The Roehr
eSupersport and eSuperbike were built on a South Korean Hyosung GT250R chassis,
modified to cope with the extra weight and power of electric running gear. The
eSupersport had a single motor putting out the equivalent of 48hp, while the
eSuperbike had twin motors knocking out around 96hp. The eSuperbike also
featured a larger battery pack. Both received favourable reviews from the
press, who had little to compare them against.

Competition was almost nonexistent, but
neither was demand. The “e” bikes were not beautiful, mouth-watering exotica
like the V-Roehrs. They were clearly based on a pedestrian Hyosung, with ugly
slab-sided bodywork and undersized tail sections that made them look like
beluga whales gliding down the road. The price didn’t help - $16,965 for the
eSupersport and $27,595 for the eSuperbike. Those were hefty premiums for a
$3999 Korean beginner bike with an electric powertrain and uglier bodywork.

The electric project was an admirable
attempt to renew interest in the Roehr brand but it was too little, too late.
Roehr motorcycles shuttered in 2012 and there has been little word from Walter
Roehrich about his plans or hopes for the future. It’s unclear how many bikes,
and what models, were produced in the last 5 years. Roehrich hoped to build 50
of each V-Roehr but it seems that only a handful were completed (including one 1250SC that was recently offered on eBay). It’s always disheartening to see the
personal dreams of a clever and enthusiastic individual falter, but the V-Roehr
was introduced at the wrong time into a bust market, and was met with stiff
criticism despite favourable reviews.